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Revised Date: 2/6/2012
Chapter 6
E-Business Infrastructure Plan
Learning outcomes
• Define the hardware and software technologies used
to build an e-business infrastructure within an
organisation and with its partners
• Define the hardware and software requirements
necessary to enable employee access to the Internet
and hosting of e-commerce services.
What is e-Business infrastructure?
• A system architecture that consists of:
▫
▫
▫
▫
hardware,
software,
content and
data used
• The purpose is to deliver e-business services to
employees, customers and partners and other related
stakeholders.
What is e-Business infrastructure?
• Typical problems
▫ Web site communications too slow.
▫ Web site not available.
▫ Bugs on site through pages being unavailable or
information typed in forms not being executed.
▫ Ordered products not delivered on time.
▫ E-mails not replied to.
▫ Customers’ privacy or trust is broken through security
problems such as credit cards being stolen or addresses
sold to other companies.
What is e-Business infrastructure?
Figure 3.1
A five-layer model of e-business infrastructure
Management Issues
Table 3.1
Key management issues of e-business infrastructure
Management Issues
Table 3.1
Key management issues of e-business infrastructure (Continued)
What is the Internet?
“The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of
computer networks - a network of networks in which users at any one computer
can, if they have permission, get information from any other computer”
-whatis.com
“A global network connecting millions of computers. More than 100 countries are
linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions.
-webopedia.com
“is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet
Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons”
-FNC
What is the Internet?
Physical and network infrastructure components of the Internet
(Levels IV and III in Figure 3.1)
Figure 3.2
What is the Internet?
• London Internet Exchange
•Located in Docklands area in East London
•Second large IX in Europe
What is the Internet?
• Malaysia and the Internet
▫ Internet Usage Statistics:
13,528,200 Internet users as of Sept/2006, 47.8% of the
population, according to M.C.M.C.
▫ Malaysia Internet Exchange (MyIX)
 Established in November, 2003
 Launched on 15th December 2006
 3 nodes connected in AIMS, NCC and TPM Jaring
What is the Internet?
• World Wide Web – standard method for
exchanging information on the Internet
• Web browsers – a method of accessing and
viewing information stored as web documents
• Web servers – store and present the web pages
Technology Evolution
Table 3.2
Six stages of advances in the dissemination of information
Technology Evolution
Clay tablets
Guternberg Press
How big is the Internet?
• Over 1 billion Internet users worldwide
• How big the infrastructure they accessing?
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▫
▫
▫
Measured by number of servers
Number of pages indexed by search engines
2006: 9 billion pages
Dec 2010:????
Figure 3.4
The Netcraft index of number of servers
Source: Netcraft Web Server Survey. http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web server survey.html. Netcraft, http://netcraft.com
Intranet and extranet
• Intranet:
▫ A private network within a single company using
Internet standards to enable employees to share
information
• Extranet:
▫ Formed by extending an intranet beyond a company
to customers, suppliers and collaborators
Intranet and extranet
Figure 3.5
The relationship between intranets, extranets and the Internet
Intranet applications
• Used extensively for supporting sell-side ecommerce
• Also used for internal marketing communications,
ex. Directories, staff bulletin, SOP, courses, etc.
• Marketing Intranet has a few advantages:
▫
▫
▫
▫
Reduced product life cycle
Reduce cost
Better customer service
Distribution of information
Intranet applications- example
Extranet applications- example
• Used to provide
online services
which are
restricted to
business
customers
Extranet applications- example
Premier Dell.com
Extranet applications- Business benefits
•
•
•
•
Information sharing
Cost reduction
Order processing and distribution
Customer service
Extranet applications-issues
• Questions on the extranet?
▫
▫
▫
▫
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Are the levels of usage sufficient?
Is it effective and efficient?
Who has ownership of the extranet?
What are the levels of service quality?
Is the quality of information adequate?
Extranet application on global basis
Extranet applications on global basis
Extranet application-Firewalls
• A specialized software mounted on a separate
server at the point where the company is connected
to the Internet
• Use to protect information on the company
Extranet application-Firewalls
Firewall positions within the e-business infrastructure of the
B2B company
Figure 3.6
World Wide Web
• A standard method for exchanging and publishing
information on the Internet.
• Based on standard document formats such as HTML
▫
▫
▫
▫
Offers hyperlink
Supports a wide range of formatting
Can integrate graphics and animations
Make interactions possible
• Benefits:
▫ Easy to use
▫ Provide a graphical environment
▫ Standardization of tools and usages
WWW-How it works
Figure 3.7
server
Information exchange between a web browser and web
Internet tools
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
E-mail
Instant messaging (IM) and Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
Usenet newsgroups
FTP file transfer
Telnet
Blogs
RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
World Wide Web
IPTV
BitTorrent
Internet tools-RSS
• An Internet standard
for publishing and
exchanging content
using XML
• Content can be
published on a site
that originates from
another site
• New method of
distributing
messages to
subscribers
Internet tools-Voice over IP (VOIP)
• Voice data is transferred across the Internet – it
enables phone calls to be made over the Internet.
▫
▫
▫
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Peer-to-peer
Hosted service
Complete replacement of all telephone systems
Upgrading telephone systems
Ex. Skype
URLs and Domain names
• URL- Uniform resource locaters.
▫ A web address used to locate a web page on a web
server.
• Domain names
▫ The name of the web server
▫ Usually indicate the company name and the extension
shows its type.
▫ Ex. www.uniten.edu.my
What does it
mean?
URLS and domain names
• Web addresses are structured in a standard way as
follows:
▫ http://www.domain-name.extension/filename.html
▫ What do the following extensions or global top level
domains stand for? Find out....










.com
.co.uk, .uk.com
.org or .org.uk
.gov
.edu, .ac.uk
.int
.net
.biz
.info
.html
Web Presentation-HTML and XML
• HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
▫ A standard format used to define the text and layout of
web pages. HTML files usually have the extension
.HTML or .HTM.
• XML or eXtensible Markup Language
▫ A standard for transferring structured data, unlike HTML
which is purely presentational.
▫ Use to develop B2B integration system ex. Microsoft
BizTalk, Rosetta.net
Web Presentation-HTML
Home page index.html for The B2B Company in a web browser showing
HTML source in text editor
Figure 3.9
Media standards
• GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) A graphics format and
compression algorithm best used for simple graphics
• JPEG (Joint Photographics Experts Group) A graphics format
and compression algorithm best used for photographs
• Streaming media. Sound and video that can be experienced
within a web browser before the whole clip is downloaded e.g.
Real Networks .rm format
• Video standards include MPEG and .AVI
• Sound standards include MP3 and WMA
Who controls the Internet?
• ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers)
• The Internet Society (www.isoc.org)
• The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
• The World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org)
• Telecommunications Information Networking
Architecture Consortium TINA-C
Managing e-business infrastructure
• Layer II – Systems software
▫ Standardization throughout organization
▫ Reduce number of contacts for support and
maintenance
▫ Reduce purchase price through multi-licenses
• Layer III – Transport or network
▫ Based on internal and external company network
▫ Issue: performed by the company or outsource
• Laver IV – Storage
▫ Based on company needs
▫ Who is in-charged
Managing e-business infrastructure
(a) Fragmented applications infrastructure, (b) integrated applications
infrastructure
Figure 3.10
Source: Adapted from Hasselbring (2000)
Managing e-business infrastructure
Figure 3.11
Differing use of applications at levels of management within companies
Managing e-business infrastructure
Figure 3.12
Elements of e-business infrastructure that require management
Internet service providers (ISP)
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•
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•
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ISP connection method
Speed of access
Availability
Service-level agreements
Security
New access devices
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•
•
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Mobile access devices
Wi-Fi mobile access
Bluetooth
Next-generation mobile services
Interactive digital television
What else…. Your inputs…
Not considered as new
any more…
Access providers
Figure 3.13
Mobile access technologies
Summary
• The e-Business infrastructure need to be well
defined and understand to ensure the company
aware of its importance and limitations.
• There are five generic layers of e-Business
infrastructure that emphasize on different functions.
• The Internet technology also evolves and allowed
various web based applications to be developed to
support various business processes and needs.
Tutorial 6
1. Distinguish between Intranet, Extranet and
Internet.
2. You are a consultant to a small enterprise that
interested in setting up a transactional ecommerce site.
a. Create a summary guide for the company about the
stages/levels that are necessary in the creation of a
web site.
b. Discuss the management issues that may involved.
References
• Google Image, http://www.google.com accessed on
13 April 2011.
• Chaffey, D., (2007, 2009), E-Business and eCommerce Management, 3rd and 4th Edition, Prentice
Hall.
• Rosetta.Net,
http://www.rosettanet.org.my/rnstd.asp assessed on
18.4.2011.
Mini case 1